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HISTORY was made at Rufaro on Saturday as an all-female line-up of match officials took charge of the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match between Herentals and Chicken Inn.
The history-making officials were led by match commissioner, Kuda Chirimba.
Grace Gimo was the referee and she was assisted by Claris Simango and Progress Chatsamwa while Thanks Nyahuye was the fourth official. ZIFA Referees Committee chairperson Norman Matemera described the historic event as a step in the right direction.
He said it was a great milestone for the domestic game and a move in the right direction.
He also praised the ladies for a good performance.
At the 2021 AFCON finals, the Warriors were part of history when the Confederation of African Football deployed a female referee in Zimbabwe’s last game of the campaign.
The Warriors were part of the watershed moment as a female referee handled an AFCON match for the first time in the tournament’s history.
Rwandese female referee, Salima Mukansanga, received that honour and had a very good performance.
At the 2022 World Cup finals, an all-female on-field refereeing team made history when they took charge of the group game between Costa Rica and Germany.
Stephanie Frappart became the first woman to referee at a men’s World Cup game.
The Frenchwoman became the first female official at the tournament when she was named as the fourth official for Mexico and Poland’s game.
Frappart said she knew the pressure which came with the honour but said she believed that the time had come for female referees to also get such a breakthrough.
She was joined by assistant referees, Brazil’s Neuza Back and Mexican Karen Diaz Medina, at Al Bayt Stadium in Qatar during that historic moment.
Now, we are seeing our own female referee also becoming part of this very beautiful story and on Saturday they made a big statement for themselves and their colleagues.
We want to thank the ZIFA Referees Committee for trusting the female referees that they can do a decent job handling Premiership matches.
We also want to thank them for investing in their identification and development behind the scenes.
We agree with the ZIFA Referees Committee that the game was changing around the world and our female referees cannot be left behind amid these changes.
Refereeing has been under the spotlight in this country this season amid complaints that some of the match officials have been making dubious decisions to favour certain clubs.
At the turn of the millennium we had local referees who were good enough to officiate at the World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea in 2002.
We had referees who were handling football games at the Olympics and at the AFCON finals.
All that has changed and we no longer get our referees being appointed for such huge assignments.
Maybe, the female referees will fill that role and our challenge right now is to ensure that we respect them and not target them for their gender.
Online Reporter